After hearing from The Angry Video Game Nerd about his misfortune with cartridges that don't have end labels, I'd like to hear from you:

How fussed are you over whether or not cartridges have end labels?

I think end labels are a good idea, so that if you have your cartridges all lined up, you don't have to remove them from the line just to know which games are which. Yet if a cartridge doesn't have an end label, I'm calm and cool with it.

I have before come across end label inerpt cartridges with "artificial" end labels applied:

I remember renting Toy Story & Micro Machines 96 from Blockbusters, and because Toy Story's end label doesn't display the game's name, and Micro Machines 96 doesn't have an end label, Blockbuster applied their own end labels to both cartridges.

3 years ago, I bought Mario Kart 64 for my Nintendo 64. I was fascinated to find that the copy the store sold me had "Mkart" written on top of the cartridge by one of the employees! I bet this was done to make it easier for them to organize their stock.

BEFORE READING THIS NEXT PART OF THE POST, PLEASE BE AWARE THAT NON-AMERICAN SUPER NINTENDO/SUPER FAMICOM CARTRIDGES DON'T HAVE END LABELS, UNLIKE AMERICAN SUPER NINTENDO CARTRIDGES, WHICH DO HAVE END LABELS.

I also remember, when gamestation still sold preowned games for older systems, I bought Biker Mice From Mars for the Super Nintendo from one branch of the store, and it turns out they wrote "BIKER MICE FROM MARS" on top of the cartridge before putting it up for sale! Nice.

Earlier this Summer, I bought the Animaniacs Super Nintendo game off eBay, and when my game arrived, I was interested to find that the eBay user who sold it to me wrote "Animaniac's" on top of the cartridge before selling it :) .

What are your thoughts on whether or not cartridges have end labels?

The only carts that really bother me about this are Master System agmes. The label goes to the top anyway. Famicom isn't much better, but when you only have 2, and they're differant colors, it doesn't really matter.

I guess it all depends on on how you store your games. I have a library of Sega Genesis games (over 100) most of which don't have boxes that I store in an old cassette tape storage rack. Only a few of the cartridges have damaged labels but most of the labels are intact. They're not organized in any particular order but I kind of have them in little categories like platformers, fighting games, arcade games, sports games, etc...

End labels? What?

It all depends on how you organize your games. I keep all of mine in bins, so it's not a problem for me.

I'm also wondering what they are.

I keep all my NES, Genesis, and SNES games in my entertainment center cabinet(s). That's how they get well-preserved all throughout the years.

Well, that's what I think, anyway.

i'd wished that gameboy games had end labels. the majority of gameboy games i had were used and didn't come with the original box

What the shit is an end label?

Did John not make it obvious enough? Argh, I'll just explain it over MSN.

I see. I've never heard it be called that. I always heard/read it as top/top label/whatever, but never end label. Well, thanks for clearing that up.

No prawblem Noid.

I like to have end labels on my atari games, but some of the harder to come by ones Im not as fussy about.

I do like to have end labels on my games. it does make it easier when you store your games on a shelf, which I do. You can categorize and find the one you want easier. I find it odd that they didn't do the end label thing for the N64 cartridges, but I won't go as far as marking them because of it.